


silver place

by ziskandra



Category: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Canon, Reunions, Weight Gain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28209675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziskandra/pseuds/ziskandra
Summary: Upon reuniting with Rebecca after his sabbatical, Nathaniel finds himself feeling self-conscious about his body.
Relationships: Rebecca Bunch/Nathaniel Plimpton
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17
Collections: Writing Rainbow Silver





	silver place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wyvernwood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernwood/gifts).



Part of Nathaniel had hoped some time and distance would have dampened his feelings for Rebecca Bunch. Another part of him had never been more pleased to be proven wrong.

Holding her in his arms again after her open mic night just reminded him of everything he’d loved about her in the first place: her passionate pursuit of her goals, the courage she had to be her own person, the curve of her smile, and not to mention her frankly _amazing_ tits.

What? He was a simple man, all things considered. And she felt _right_ , pressed up against him, chest-to-chest as they kissed in the doorway to her house. He wanted nothing more than to sweep her in his arms, carry her off to bed, and make love to her all night long.

Ugh. _Make love_. What had he become?

Still, though. He couldn’t make himself hate it because it was just one of the other ways in which Rebecca had changed him: she made him feel like his life actually had meaning.

For the better or the worse, he didn't give into his most base impulses, instead taking a moment to pause for air in between their kisses. “Should we be doing this?” he asked, with all the earnestness he could muster, determined to give Rebecca a chance to call it off, reject him, before his hopes climbed too high. His ego might have had some time to recover after losing the competition for Rebecca's heart last year, but failure still rankled at him, at who he was as a person. It didn't matter that they had _all_ lost: second place was for losers, his dad had always said, and they never even spoke of all the places that came _after_. 

It was with the benefit of hindsight that he’d realized that he and Rebecca hadn’t really given each other space – real space – to breathe, before. It was easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of her intensity.

Huh. Maybe his sabbatical _had_ changed him, just in more subtle ways than he’d expected.

Rebecca worried at her lip as Nathaniel’s stomach did somersaults. God, why did it feel like that time he’d been on that detox diet? “I can’t promise anything,” she started, and she must have seen the way Nathaniel’s face dropped for she quickly rephrased, “but I can promise to try.” Then her hand was cupping his chin again and drawing him in for another kiss, and he wondered why he had ever doubted her at all.

It wasn’t long before they were stumbling down the hallway towards Rebecca’s bedroom anyway, Nathaniel’s fingers making quick work of the buttons of Rebecca’s shirt as they went. She shucked the garment off her shoulders, leaving it where it lay, as her hands reached for _his_ buttons.

Before he even had a moment to process his reaction, he reached up to push her away. To Rebecca’s credit, she paused, eyeing him curiously. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

He took a deep breath, tried to examine where this feeling had come from. “I’m…” he started, before trailing off, unsure how to explain that he felt deficient in some way. Changed, and not in a way she had inspired. “I’ve…” This was stupid. Had he really forgotten how to form sentences? He shrugged as casually as he could muster before settling on his words. “I’ve not been exercising as much lately.”

“Nathaniel,” Rebecca said with an easy, breezy laugh, giving him a playful shove with her hand against his shoulder, “I’m not into you for your body.”

He winced. She probably hadn’t meant for it to come out like that, but he could barely hunch his shoulders before her eyes widened and she clarified. “Oh, no, no, no, I mean, I’m not into you _just_ for your body. There’s many other things I like about you, that are here…” She tapped a finger against his forehead. “Here…” She jabbed his chest with that same finger, “And…” Her gaze trailed lower, to his hips and below. There was something about the way she was looking at him that made him heat up and feel like he was about to explode, like he’d never been with a woman before.

How ridiculous. And yet, he still somehow didn’t mind it.

“It’s still a very nice body,” Rebecca continued, “even if you can’t crack a chestnut with your abdominal muscles right now.”

Her praise was more kind than he was anticipating, and the resulting mental image made him chuckle. “I do miss that little party trick,” he said with an exaggerated sigh, and this time, when Rebecca ran her hands over his shirt, he let them roam.

*

After an _extended_ period of time in the bedroom, they moved to the couch to eat some late-night pizza. Nathaniel had his limits, and they extended to eating food in bed. As a Netflix show they were barely watching glowed softly in the background, Rebecca sprawled out on the couch, dressed only in her night robe. She rested her head against the soft gentle curve of his belly, and he smoothed her hair behind her ears.

“My favourite pillow,” she remarked, and he again found that he didn’t hate the insinuation. Indeed, he instead found himself thinking: _yes, I could get used to this._


End file.
